Heroes Want Redheads

A color-coordinated romance.

"I wanna live
with a cinnamon girl
I could be happy
the rest of my life
With a cinnamon girl."

— Neil Young, "Cinnamon Girl"

Love Interests have always been Colour-Coded for Your Convenience. Traditionally, the hero's significant other would usually be a blonde, to contrast with the brunette Vamp or Femme Fatale. But today, the passive Damsel in Distress and Satellite Love Interest has been replaced by the sassy, bold, brash, sharp-tongued Action Girl — easily compatible with the "spunky Fiery Redhead" stereotype. In their relationship she will probably make him work to win her over for a long time or he won't realize that she's the one for him until the end. Naturally, it's quite common for the Veronica in a Betty and Veronica Love Triangle to be a redhead; the Betty will be a blonde.

Considering that less than 2% of the world's population has red hair (mainly among Celts, Scandinavians, and Ashkenazi Jews), there is a disproportionate number of red-haired characters out there, and an inordinate number of them are The Hero's winning Love Interest. (On top of that, they are also inordinately likely to have green eyes to go with it.) One possible source is Robert A. Heinlein's fondness for hypercapable red-haired heroines (he had a red-haired wife).

In European comics, the high proportion of redheads among the main protagonists has been explained by some authors by the simple fact that, since redheads are rare, they're easier to spot in the panels — especially true for crowd scenes.

Perhaps surprisingly to outsiders, given the (relatively) higher proportion of Irish redheads, this trope does not seem to exist in Ireland. Redheaded leads do appear, of course, but they are heavily outnumbered by the more common blondes and brunettes. This may be that, unlike almost everywhere else, red hair is not really seen as especially "exotic" in Ireland and Irish made media reflects this.

There isn't always a reason for this; if there is, sometimes, the red hair is symbolic of love and romantic desire, or the author just finds people that look like that appealing.

There are some cases where the redhead actually is The Hero. Please note that not every romance involving a red-head falls under this trope.

Oh, and this can apply to Evil Redhead, overlapping with Dating Catwoman.

Compare Everyone Loves Blondes, Red Is Heroic. Contrast Red-Headed Stepchild.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Ennis in Baccano! has realistic, dark rust-colored hair, and even though she's an Artificial Human, Firo has enough of a thing for her to wait fifty years to marry her.
• The main Official Couple in Brain Powerd is Yuu and the red-haired Hime.
• Ceres, Celestial Legend heroine Aya Mikage had the choice between the sandy brown-haired Yuuhi Aogiri or maroon-haired (honestly. Just live with it, okay?) Tooya. Not only does she get the redhead, they also fall into Babies Ever After.
• In the anime adaptation of D.N.Angel, Daisuke Niwa has two potential love interests in Risa Harada, the brunette girl who he initially has feelings for, and her twin sister, Riku Harada, the redhead who Daisuke develops feelings for as the series progresses. Guess which one he ends up with.
• In El-Hazard: The Magnificent World, the first thing that nymphomaniac lesbian Alielle says when she sees the fiery priestess Shayla Shayla? "Red haaaaair!" Afterwards, she puts The Glomp on Shayla at every opportunity.
• Mamori Anezaki of Eyeshield 21 was a brunette for the first manga volume, but the author quickly changed her hair to an orangey-red color to make her stand out more. Deuteragonist, Hiruma Yoichi, ends up being her (sorta) love interest.
• Jellal Fernandes of Fairy Tail might not be the main hero, but he definitely fits the bill, as the only woman he's ever shown attraction to is Fiery Redhead Erza Scarlet. Back when they were children, he was the one who gave her a surname, after her beautiful red hair.
• Kenshiro's fiancee, Yuria, in the Fist of the North Star anime, was the unrequited love interests of other characters as well (namely Shin, Toki, Raoh, and even her half-brother Juza), while her look-alike Mamiya attracted the attention of Rei and Yuda. It should be noted that both women were originally dark-haired brunettes in the manga.
• Fruits Basket: Tohru's love interest, Kyo, has orange hair due to being possessed by the spirit of the Cat from the original story of the Eastern Zodiac.
• While not the hero, Naoki Shinjyo from Future GPX Cyber Formula has a love interest in Miki Jounouchi, who has reddish-brown hair for most of the series.
• GaoGaiGar has this trope in spades. If Gai and Mikoto and Mamoru and Hana aren't enough, FINAL strongly hints that Soldat J and Renais had become a Battle Couple or are on their way to it. Does red and pink hair remind them of their hearts burning with courage or something?
• Issei from High School D×D, while he has no shame in admitting he wants to have his own harem, it's also rather blatantly obvious the one girl who has the biggest hold over his feelings is Rias Gremory, the very one who brought him back to life as a devil and made said dream possible in the first place. Issei, upon first seeing Rias at school, even remarked to himself just how beautiful her deep crimson hair is. Said feelings are requited, and they finally become a couple in Volume 10, after Issei's harem encouraged him to confess to her.
• Katerose von Kreutzer in Legend of the Galactic Heroes, as prior to her introduction, the only romantic interest introduced for Julian Minci is the older of Alex Czellenu's daughters.
• Keitaro Urashima of Love Hina has the red-headed Naru Narusegawa (among others), although he's not much of a hero. Initially. Of course, this is subverted in the anime, where Naru's hair is less red/orange and more straight brown.
• Magic Knight Rayearth: Both Lantis and Eagle want redheaded Hikaru.
• Les Yay example in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS with Teana, who Subaru isn't shy about expressing her affection for, much to Teana's embarrassment.
• Maoyu: More of a case of "Hero got himself a redheaded Demon Queen", given that she was the one to (sort of) propose to him. Though it's clear from the get-go that he does see her as beautiful and eventually reciprocates her feelings.
• It's told from Miki Koishikawa's perspective, but in Marmalade Boy (and more prominently in the prequel film) her recent stepbrother Yuu Matsuura also falls for Miki, even if he teases her and doesn't show his feelings very much. He even kisses her after she fainted the first time they "meet". Also, Miki is more redhead in the anime than in the manga.
• Maylu from MegaMan NT Warrior develops a crush on Lan Hikari throughout the series (and they eventually get married in the Mega Man Battle Network games).
• The Gundam franchise has a few examples:
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam, Amuro's Frau Bow has reddish-brown hair and Lt. Matilda is a full-on redhead who is lusted after by every male member of the White Base crew. Then there's Margaret Blair, Char's love interest in the 3rd volume of the novelization. The fact that she's a chubby, Girl Next Door type secretary who manages to bed an Ace Pilot whose other love interests have all been mysterious, waifish girls with tragic pasts is a testament to the awesome power of the trope.
  • Jump forward about sixty years and you get Cecily Fairchild, who has an entire movie centered around the hero's quest for her.
  • Flay Allster of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED may have been the Scrappy, but Kira had a crush on her at the beginning of the series and it grew into something more. They have sex, even if she was manipulating him, and it's clear he still cares greatly for her at the end of the series. Also, she did come to care for him after her Character Development, but ends up dead.
  • And, to a greater extent, Lacus Clyne (although she has pink hair rather than red).
  • In fact, by the end of Destiny, all three main heroes end up paired with redheads: Kira, with Lacus, Athrun, with Meyrin, and Shinn, with Lunamaria.
• Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto's mother, and her husband, the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze. Subverted at first and then played straight. Kushina was initially mocked for her long red hair, but unfortunately for her bullies, it was the source of her power and she even fought with it, earning her the nickname "Red Hot-Blooded Habanero." When she was kidnapped by Kumo ninja, she left behind strands of her hair for anyone to follow, which helped Minato track her down. When he rescued her, Minato boldly stated that her red hair was "beautiful." Given that he was the first person to compliment her hair, Kushina was putty in Minato's arms very quickly. Afterwards, Kushina was renowned for her beauty in the Leaf Village.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • Subverted with Negi and Asuna. Asuna is Negi's Fiery Redhead partner and they have a lot of Ship Tease, but they don't end up as a couple at the end of the manga and we can be sure that whoever is the girl Negi likes, it's not Asuna. Played straight when UQ Holder! revealed that the girl in question was the also red headed Chisame.
  • Kotarou's one female love interest and eventual wife? Natsumi. Haircolor? Red.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Asuka Langley Soryu is one of the primary love interests and a classic Fiery Redhead. She has a very interesting Everyone Can See It Belligerent Sexual Tension relationship with Shinji Ikari. The two share similar backgrounds and are clearly attracted to and want to get closer to one another, but their very different ways of handling their social shortcomings (Asuka in an aggressive and head-on manner, actively pushing people away because she is afraid of getting hurt; Shinji in a passive and withdrawn fashion, being withdrawn and reticent because he is also afraid of getting hurt) lead to numerous misunderstandings and resentment, especially on Asuka's part, between them.
• Ririka from Nurse Angel Ririka SOS becomes lovestruck over Nozomu, who has light red (almost pinkish) hair. She is Oblivious to Love when it comes to the brunette Seiya.
• Nami of One Piece. Though her hair is more orange than red, Nami still holds this trope in full being the series Ms. Fanservice with a Money Fetish and Action Girl. A whole quarter of the males in the series either want to kidnap Nami for her navigation skills or just want to get in her pants, Nami is also the crewmate that tends to kidnapped most often and is the main female attraction of heroic Chef of Iron Sanji who is always quick to note what a bombshell she is. But Sanji's opinion is also shared by others both hero and villain alike: all three of his brothers, Usopp, Brook, Aokiji, Hannyabal, Absalom, Momonosuke, several Non-Serial Movie villains and dozen other Pirates and Marines who are quite taken with Nami.
• Patlabor: Noa Izumi shares a close bond and a lot of chemistry with her partner, Asuma Shinhara, but he doesn't hook up with her until years after the OVA's conclusion.
• In Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream, there's Aira Harune, Hye In, and Bell Renjouji.
• Inverted in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, where Evil Redhead Kyoko Sakura is implied to have a one-sided crush on blue-haired heroine Sayaka Miki, who is straight. Of course, over the time Kyoko turns out to be not so evil after all and Sayaka drifts into Ambiguously Bi territory, so in Rebellion this trope seems to be played straight.
• In Ranma ˝, Tatewaki is a Don Quixote whose Dulcinea is Ranma's sexy redheaded female form. And his fangirls still chase after him too, even in this form.
• Played with in The Rising of the Shield Hero, where The Hero Naofumi is paired up with the dark crimson headed Malty Melromarc, who seemingly becomes his companion out of good will. It changed very quickly the next day when Naofumi discovered her true colors in the most horrendous way possible.
• Yuji's love interest Shana from Shakugan no Shana normally has jet black hair, but it turns fiery red hair when using her powers, with an emphasis on the fire. Her hair color is actually part of her name.
• Lina Inverse of the Slayers universe. Gourry chose her over his black-haired Unlucky Childhood Friend Sylphiel, after all.
• Steins;Gate: Okarin...Kyouma, spends a Mind Screw-worthy amount of time trying to save his Childhood Friend Mayuri. He decides all his effort should be thrown away, when the choice comes to save either her...or the redhead Kurisu.
• The redheaded Yoko of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann garnered interest from at least three heroic men: Simon, Kamina and Kittan. It's subverted since none of them actually end up with her; Simon gets over his crush on Yoko and comes to see her as a Cool Big Sis and close friend, and instead ends up with the blue/pale blonde-haired Nia, and as for Kamina and Kittan both of them died in battle shortly after kissing Yoko.
• While it's left to your imagination what really happened, Twenty-Fifth Bam and Hwaryun from Tower of God travelled together for five years between the first two seasons.
• UFO Robo Grendizer: Although Duke was interested in Hikaru, he was engaged with Rubina, daughter of the Big Bad, and he loved her openly. It ended in tears, but not for the reasons you might think of (she was not an Evil Redhead at all). The other heroes of the trilogy, though, avoided the trope: Kouji Kabuto preferred brunettes, and Tetsuya Tsurugi favored raven-haired babes.
• Vandread: Inverted, as it's the redhead Genki Girl Dita Liebely who chases after The Hero, Hibiki Tokai, throughout the entire series. He does reciprocate her feelings by the finale, though.
• Maruko from Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is arguably a subversion of this trope, as she's somewhat off-putting towards some of the characters (including the main character) and it may be partially the author's intention to convey that to the audience. Quite a bit of the audience aren't listening, though, and as far as they're concerned, she's a straight-up trope example.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Yusei Fudo, "The Hero", and Aki Izayoi the psychic/(psycho) powered red head. Not that there was much competition aside from Sherry LeBlanc, the blonde rival to Aki in this sense. Yusei basically confirms this trope in the final episode of the series.

Arts

• Hylas and the Nymphs: The seductive naiads notably all have auburn hair, which adds to their allure and starkly contrasts with the nature surrounding them.
• Gustav Klimt's The Kiss: The notably redheaded woman is the object of beauty and desire in the painting.

Comic Books

• The prevalence of redheaded heroines, villainesses and love interests in superhero comics is neatly summed up by this image◊, showing Caitlin Fairchild, Jean Grey, Batwoman, Medusa, Poison Ivy, Starfire, Mystique, Batgirl, Siryn, Firestar, and Mary Jane Watson.
• Aquaman's on-again, off-again wife, Mera. (Note that white-haired Dolphin didn't last too long as his belle and was eventually paired off with Tempest, formerly Aqualad.)
• Archie's Third-Option Love Interest in Archie Comics is Cheryl Blossom, who is presented considerably more sexually than blonde Betty and brunette Veronica (who have their good chunk of fanservice already). Cheryl's sexiness got her removed from the comic for a while but eventually she was added back in.
• The Avengers, Odin Borson was a couple with redhead mutant Firehair. They did have a kid from that relationship.
• Sally, from Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), is a redhead. Fiona, too.
• Several of Batman's Love Interests such as Poison Ivy, Vicki Vale, Linda Page and Jezebel Jet.
• Captain Atom's first and second wives, Angela Adam and Bette Sans Souci, were both redheads (or maybe strawberry blondes). In between, he dated women with different hair colors, but both of the women he married were redheads.
• Despite having a great many "sweethearts", Conan the Barbarian seemed to always hold a special place in his heart for Red Sonja, to the point of being ready to abandon his wife, children and throne to go adventuring with her in Conan The King #28.
• Cyclops' longtime love interest was Jean Grey, who's even nicknamed "Red". The first time he thought she was dead, he married her (obviously redheaded) clone, Madelyne Pryor. After she went crazy from that and committed suicide, he dated Jean for a number of years before she proposed to him and they married. Meanwhile, Wolverine's fixation on Jean Grey is apparently the latest in a long line of redheads going back to his childhood, where his first love, Rose, was a dead-ringer for Jean.
• Amelia Voght, a member of the Acolytes, was a redheaded love interest to Professor X.
• Wolverine seems to prefer redheads and Japanese girls, owing to the two loves of his life: Rose and, in his post-amnesiac years, Mariko Yashida.
• E-Man has Nova Kane.
• Another male example, Green Arrow's sidekick, Roy Harper (formerly known as "Speedy" and "Red Arrow", known now for the second time as "Arsenal"), has always been a ladies' man.
• King Mob of The Invisibles ends up in a relationship with the red-haired Ragged Robin.
• All of Iron Man's most significant romantic relationships: Pepper Potts, Bethany Cabe, Natalia Romanoff. Redheads. Although Bethany sometimes appeared as a brunette and Natasha originally had black hair that was later retconned to red.
• Becky Burdock, Vampire Reporter, is the potential love interest for Jack Staff. She's clearly stated to be a redhead in the early black and white issues, and is naturally depicted as such when it moved into colour.
• The marvelous, much sought after Mina in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a redhead, though her character in the original Dracula novel is blonde.
• Madman's love interest Joe (Josephine).
• The girlfriend of Magnus from Magnus Robot Fighter, Leeja Clane, is often described as a redhead, and in some ways conforms to the impulsive stereotype of a redhead, although as depicted she could also be honey-blonde.
• Nightwing's two major canon love interests are both red-heads; Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) and Koriand'r (Starfire). And if that counts, Girl of the Week Cheyenne was a red-head. Nightwing has even stated himself that he has a thing for red-heads when first meeting the new Batwoman in 52. And in the 2011 series, his love interest is Raya Vestri. Guess what color her hair is. For bonus points, his two Heterosexual Life-Partners pre-New 52, Roy Harper and Wally West, are redheaded as well.
• Donna Troy, Nightwing's fellow Titan, had had two notable redhead love interests. The first was Terry Long (which was quite infamous due to age difference) and the aforementioned Roy Harper. She also has a Pseudo-Romantic Friendship of sorts with Starfire.
• Parodied in Powers; when a philandering superhero is found dead in bed as a result of bedroom-related complications, the police find a little black book with the names all of the women he tried it on with and have to go and interview all of them. Every single one of them is a redhead.
• Scott Pilgrim's romantic life consists of Kim (redhead), Natalie, a.k.a. "Envy" (redhead), Knives (temporarily had red highlights), and Ramona (her hair was red for a time, but it changes often). More obvious in the Game where his ending involves him dating Kim, Envy, and Knives all at once, and all three are pictured with him, and they all have red hair.
• SpiderMan:
  • Mary Jane Watson-Parker, main Love Interest of Peter Parker; the two were the Official Couple during most of the character's run.
  • In the "Superman And Spider Man" crossover, Peter Parker starts working as a freelance for the Daily Planet and swiftly hits on resident redhead Lana Lang (Peter and MJ were not together back then).
  • Highly unpopular love interest for Peter, Carlie Cooper, is subject to a severe case of Depending on the Artist for almost every subsequent appearance she's made. She's been depicted as a redhead several times to the point where, in the second occurrence, certain fans weren't sure if Peter had gotten back together with Mary Jane or not, until Carlie's name came up in the text.
  • Peter's very first love interest, Daily Bugle secretary Betty Brant, had dark red hair.
• The original Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew, had a "roommate," Lindsay McCabe, who was a redhead. Considering the colossal amount of lesbian subtext between them, this is at least an honorable mention.
• In the Static comics, Frieda Goren is Virgil's first love interest. She's also caught the eye of Hotstreak - so much so that he really goes out of his way to capture her - and she has a boyfriend named Larry Wade, who is one of Virgil's friends. In the cartoon, she's still Virgil's first love interest (from which he completely moves on after meeting Daisy) and Hotstreak still has the hots for her AND two boys named Jimmy and Nick really like her, too; Jimmy's and Nick's attraction to Frieda fuels Nick's bullying of Jimmy and Jimmy's feeling like no one really cares about him, which leads to the climax of the episode when Jimmy brings a gun to school. In the first episode, she lists off how many boys have asked her to the dance as Virgil is trying to ask her out.
• Dick Malverne, Supergirl's main Love Interest -together with Brainiac 5- in the Pre-Crisis era. Depending on the artist, his hair is red or reddish-brown (Post-Crisis Dick is definitely a redhead◊). She also liked her red-haired boss Geoff when she worked in a TV station and she even kissed him in Demon Spawn. For bonus points, her Heterosexual Life-Partner is Barbara Gordon, alias Batgirl.
• Superman:
  • Lana Lang, Clark Kent's high school sweet heart, is traditionally a redhead. Which inverts the trope when Superman chooses the brunette Lois Lane over Lana.
  • In The Amazing Story of Superman Red and Superman Blue, the red-clad Superman has moved on to Lois, but Superman Blue is still in love with Lana and gets married to her.
  • Lois herself is usually presented with black hair but has been depicted many times as a redhead.
  • In Krypton No More, Terri Cross -a red-haired co-worker of Lois and Clark- flirts with Clark. He likes her, but he believes a romance can't work. And he prefers Lois anyway.
  • Superman: Earth One has Lisa Lasalle Clark's friend and neighbor. The two have a mutual attraction for each other and end up in a relationship after Lisa discovers his secret.
  • Averted with Maxima, a redheaded alien warrior princess who desires to make Superman her mate but has her advances rebuffed.
• X-Factor (2006)'s Rictor has exclusively dated Rahne and Shatterstar, two very violent redheads.
• Invincible: Subverted. The protagonist Mark isn't attracted to red headed bombshell Atom Eve, while she soon becomes taken with him. Played straight later as Mark breaks up with his blonde First Love and dates Eve whom he eventually marries and has a daughter with.
• Black Moon Chronicles: Wismerhill's lover Hellaynnea has burning red hair. After all, she is a succubus, so it highlights both her connection to the fires of hell and her fiery personality.
• Richie Rich's girlfriend is the red-haired Gloria Glad.
• Rick and Morty (Oni): Like his Dimension C-137 counterpart, Rick of Dimension C-132 has a thing for redheads.
• In Tragg and the Sky Gods, Lorn, Tragg's mate and true love, is a redheaded Nubile Savage. Tragg continually turns down advances from the sultry alien Keera so as to remain faithful to Lorn.
• Fantastic Four:
  • Alicia Masters, Ben Grimm's long time love interest and eventual wife, has strawberry blonde hair.
  • Johnny Storm's first serious girlfriend was the redheaded Crystal, a member of The Inhumans royal family. Later, Johnny dated Crystal's sister Medusa who also had red hair.
• Lady Death: Wargoth is attracted to Satasha who is a redhead. Unfortunately for him, she is a lesbian.
• Wonder Woman Vol 1: During the Golden Age the Wondy character with the most (heroic) love interests was the redheaded Etta Candy, which Etta attributes to her curves, though at least two of the men smitten with her mention her hair color.

Comic Strips

• Brenda Starr: Brenda's older than The Little Red-Haired Girl, but younger than Princess Aura.
• Flash Gordon:
  • Princess Aura in her early appearances. (Later in the strip's run, she somehow became a blonde...and her skin color changed from "Oriental yellow" to Caucasian white.
  • Queen Desira of Tropica is also a striking redhead.
• FoxTrot: In the Trope Naming arc where Roger writes His Codename Was the Fox, his (blond) wife gets particularly upset over the fact that "Agent Fox" has a fling with a redhead.
• Peanuts: Charlie Brown has a crush on the Little Red-haired Girl. He also had an actual redheaded girlfriend for a time too in Peggy Jean, one of the last original characters Charles Schultz created.

Fan Works

• General: If in the original work a redhead is The Hero's Official Couple, Implied Love Interest or a side of the Love Dodecahedron, the odds are that there will be a ton of fan creations of that work getting them together and therefore invoking the trope. Thus, the great number of fanworks featuring Shinji/Asuka, Ash/Misty, Peter/MJ, and Cyclops/Phoenix, just to name a few. Especially Shinji/Asuka, who get mentioned on This Very Wiki so much, you'd be hard-pressed to find a page where they aren't mentioned.
• That said, here is a page of fanworks where Shinji/Asuka are mentioned:
  • Advice and Trust:
    • Shinji is fully, completely and utterly smitten with Asuka. When they kiss he accidentally places his hands on her hips, and it leads to both reaching out to each other and getting together.
    • When Rei falls in love with both Shinji and Asuka she can not help to fantasize fondly about her beautiful red hair (despite of previously hating red).
      'Shinji's deep blue eyes... Asuka's crystal blue ones... her long red hair... his sensitive hands... her long legs, his compassion, her fire, her heat...'
  • Asuka And Shinjis Infinite Playlist: Literally the first thing Shinji notices about Asuka is her beautiful, fiery red hair.
    Watching her fiery red hair whip around the corner, Shinji was stunned before being brought back to reality with a smack on his head.
  • The Child of Love: Shinji loves Asuka and is determined to be there for her and for their daughter.
  • Children of an Elder God: Although Shinji is attracted to Rei he also likes Asuka and they get together eventually. In a later chapter he even pleads her not leaving him (and she replies "Never").
  • A Crown of Stars: Shinji has loved Asuka since he was fourteen. Unfortunately he missed all hints she dropped when they were teens. Later they were forced and kept apart for years but he never stopped to want her.
  • Doing It Right This Time: Shinji and Rei are infatuated with Asuka and after a while the three of them get together.
  • Evangelion 303: Asuka is the only woman that Shinji has been with and -according him- the only one that he has ever loved and will probably ever love.
  • In Futures Freak Me Out, Shinji and Asuka end up getting married. At least one scene has Shinji think fondly of her red locks.
  • HERZ: Asuka is Shinji's life's love -his own words- and he is married to her.
  • Higher Learning: Shinji was in love with Asuka but he did not know how connecting with her and did not realize that she liked him back. Thanks to Kaoru's advicing they learnt to open up and managed reaching out to each other.
  • Ghosts of Evangelion: Shinji loves his red-haired Asuka, although they needed time to heal before trying to make their relationship work.
  • The Ikaris: Asuka and Shinji got accidentally married in the first episode. It remains to be seen how long Asuka will remain in denial and realize that is what she really wants.
  • Last Child of Krypton: One of the first things Shinji noticed about Asuka was her beautiful red hair.
    Her auburn hair was like the sunset,
  • In Long Time No See, Shinji's "mysterious" wife is a redhead.
  • My Enemy My Friend: Although updates stopped before Shinji and Asuka's meeting' the author said that this story was a S/A fic.
  • In "NGE: Father Knows Best", every time Shinji and Asuka interact, he thinks she's a very hot redhead. Every time.
    Shinji groans, looking up at the grinning, blue eyed redhead. Between the dull pain and the bubbling terror, he still has that one thought;
    Still hot.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide: Shinji is very, very in love with Asuka. In spite of all their fights, arguments and disagreements, he never wants to leave her alone.
  • In the beginning of Neon Genesis Evangelion Senshi No Michi, Shinji starts noticing his childhood buddy Asuka is a beautiful red-haired girl.
  • Nobody Dies: Normally, Shinji isn't one to make attachments with others, according to Yui. The arrival of Asuka changed that. In the Rebuild, when someone mentions a "hot redhead", Shinji thinks automatically of Asuka.
  • Once More with Feeling: Shinji states several times that he is irrevocably in love with Asuka. He also finds her "long, silky", red locks very distracting.
    She looked exactly as he remembered her, her glorious auburn hair streaming out behind her in the wind
  • The One I Love Is...: Shinji finds himself in a Love Triangle with Asuka and Rei. He sincerely loves both but he finally ends up choosing Asuka.
  • RE-TAKE. In an scene Ghost-Asuka theorizes Shinji noticed her because her hair is red.
  • Rise of the Minisukas: General Taihou thinks Mana Kirishima can take advantage of Shinji Ikari's rumored redhead fetish.
    "You shouldn't have too much trouble with this one." He slid the folder containing Shinji Ikari's portfolio towards her. "Initial reports say he has a thing for redheads, so you already have a massive lead."
  • In Role-Playing (Evangelion), Shinji does not show any signs of wanting someone other than his red-haired teammate Asuka.
  • Scar Tissue: It is mentioned several times by several characters -including Shinji myself- that Shinji is obsessed with Asuka's red hair (and actually he was able to spot one of her hair strands floating in the Blood Red Sea).
  • The Second Try: Shinji and Asuka are sent to the past after surviving on their own several years in the post-Third Impact world. Throughout that time they managed to get over their traumas, fall in love get married and have a child.
  • Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: Shinji became infatuated with Asuka nearly as soon as he met her, and he spent months trying to muster the courage to ask her out.
  • Thousand Shinji: As soon as he saw Asuka for first time Shinji could not keep his hands off her.
  • Walking in the Shadow of Dreams: After Asuka went back to Germany Shinji dated some girls... but no relationship lasted because he loved Asuka and he could not forget her. Finally they met again when they were in their late twenties and got together.
  • When She Smiles (Fresh C): Shinji keeps loving Asuka, even though she becomes an almost completely different person after losing her memories.
  • You Are (Not) At Fault: Shinji did not even notice Asuka accidentally flashing her panties in their first meeting because he was too busy staring at her glorious red hair.
    Asuka: "I wasn't going to just let you and your stooge friends gawk at me when the wind blew my skirt up! None of you averted your eyes like a gentleman would!"
    Shinji: "Oh... that was what happened? I was too focused on your face and that red hair to notice much of anything else."
    Asuka: "That's the truth, is it?"
    Shinji: "I'd never seen anybody with red hair before! And you looked... um... uh... b-beautiful..."
• Adventures of a Super Family: Clark Kent likes Lana Lang (redhead) and later gets in a relationship with Barbara Gordon (also redhead).
• Explicitly averted in All This Sh*t is Twice as Weird by Mahanon, who playfully informs Cassandra that no, he and his red-haired counterpart are not a couple, in part because "I prefer brunettes" - he's actually interested in Cass. Cullen, however, plays the trope straight.
• Bait and Switch (STO): Reshek Gaarra admits to still being attracted to Significant Green-Eyed Redhead Kanril Eleya, despite the fact she's his CO and them being in a relationship is against regulations.
• Code Geass: Paladins of Voltron: Most definitely given Lelouch Ship Tease with Kallen.
• In the beginning of Dance with the Demons, Nightwing and Starfire get married. They're ridiculously devoted to each other.
• Danganronpa 2/3 Redux: Return Unto Death: Rantaro and Mahiru grow closer over the course of the killing game, eventually becoming an Official Couple. Then during the final trial, it's revealed that Hajime married the original Mahiru, providing another example that catches everyone off-guard.
• Seems to be the case with Viole and Hwaryun in Dei Fabula. Though to be frank, it hasn't been outright stated as of yet. Knowing the writer, however, and the subtle hints dropped every so often, it's a very safe guess that this trope is being played straight.
• Prior to meeting Wizard Ponder Stibbons, the young Johanna Smith-Rhodes was courted - very carefully and apprehensively - by a young Army officer who later went on to win a chestful of gallantry medals. ^note  He was warned off by Papa Bear, shortly before she was exiled to Ankh-Morpork so as to solve a problem. A quarter-century later, he still occasionally thinks of her and wonders what might have been. Read more in the Discworld'' of A.A. Pessimal.
• The Flower Princess and the Alchemist: Edward is infatuated with Orihime. Although, he remains in denial. Later on, he almost silently and subtly has a Green-Eyed Epiphany. Though, he admits to no one but himself of his attraction to her. Possibly also due to perceiving/thinking that he's not as good as her First Love, especially after the Sacred First Kiss incident when Orihime rejected him. The entire situation left him as a Heartbroken Badass for a few chapters.
• In Hellsister Trilogy, Supergirl falls for Dev-Em, a ginger boy.
• House of Summers:
  • Scott is very much in love with Jean.
    Scott watched Jean walk closer towards him in that elegant way of hers that never failed to mesmerize him. Her long, red hair was pulled back in an intricate braid, and it swung to the side as she leaned in to kiss him. He was one lucky man. The only woman he ever loved had agreed to marry him.
  • Subverted with Peter, who falls for Rachel while believing she's a blonde, but he thinks she looks even greater as a redhead.
    "Well, I for one always thought you were beautiful as a blonde, but now you're beyond stunning as a redhead," Peter said, winking at Rachel, a flirtatious smile directed her way.
• In the Archer/House crossover fanfic Identity Crisis, Cameron dyes her hair red and both Archer and House find her very attractive as a redhead.
• Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus: Tony Clark falls in love with Chloe Cerise both because she's capable of kicking ass and because she saved him and Yuri from being attacked by Gentleman Thief Indigo. After he's taken care of, they have a date at the Skyscraper Car involving milkshakes, swinging across high buildings, and kicking ass against masked robbers,
• Fanfiction author KhaosOmega pairs his self-based OC Jet Brazie with countless girls. The primary 'Alpha' of them is predominant redhead Anise Azeat.
• The Many Dates of Danny Fenton: Most of Danny's dates are redheads, including his first one, Kim Possible. She's also one of the girls he's the most interested in.
• Inverted to "the redhead wants the hero" in The Night Unfurls. Maia, the redhead, is attracted to the Anti-Hero, Kyril Sutherland. Unfortunate for her, he is celibate.
• Pokémon Master: Ash NEVER got over Misty, not matter what he said himself and everyone. He finally understands this at the second-to-last episode.
• A Possible Encounter for a Phantom: Danny Fenton spends the entire story pining for Kim Possible.
• In A Prize for Three Empires, Carol Danvers notes the only women Scott Summers ever got married to were redheads.
• The Racket-Rotter Chronicles: Both Dennis and Shark are dating redheads; Dennis is dating Blaise, and Shark is or was dating Sinbad.
• In the Tales of the Abyss fanfic Reflections it is gender flipped with Natalia and Tear being interested in Asch and Luke respectively.
• In Danny Phantom fanfic Resurrected Memories: Technically 'Amberline Lain' has auburn hair but Danny very clearly falls for her during the course of the story.
• In Risen, red-haired Jean Grey is Scott Summers' soulmate.
  "I'm not throwing a tantrum," she insisted as he let go and she slid off the bed, stalking over to the window, the sunlight glinting off her hair, imbuing its fire with streaks of gold. "He just makes me so *mad*! Why can't he assuage his conscience *without* torturing me?"
  "Exaggerate much?" he asked good-naturedly, realizing again how much he had missed every little thing about her, even scenes like this.
• In Silver Girls, Kara Zor-El is in a relationship with feisty ginger Barbara Gordon.
  Linda glanced over at her companion. Red hair fanned out on the colorful blanket, while she filled out her bikini quite nicely.
• In the There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton universe, it's shown that after Dipper moved on from his crush on Wendy, he eventually ended up in a relationship with the equally red-haired Tulip. This fact is immediately acknowledged by Dipper himself, and the source of much teasing when he introduces her to his family and friends.
• In Ultimate DCU Headverse, super-hero Linda finds red-haired vigilante Kate quite attractive. It's also mentioned detective Maggie Sawyer is fond of redheads.
  Linda: But schedule aside, can you at least ask her out to lunch? She won't say no to you."
  Kate: What makes you think that?
  Linda: "Because I know her, she has a thing for blondes and red-heads."
• Unbreakable Red Silken Thread: Because of the "two rules" system Cody and Heather agreed on for their relationship, he is much more conservative and less flirty. The first and so far only exception to this? Zoey, who he showed immediate interest in. Judging by her reaction, it isn't entirely one-sided.
• In X-Men 1970, Scott Summers and red-haired JeanGrey get married.
• In X-Men: The Early Years, the only girl Scott Summers has ever loved happens to be a redhead.
  Scott: That's Jean — a friend of mine from school.
  Katy: She's a redhead. Why am I not surprised?

Films — Animation

• On a canine level, the red-furred Husky Jenna and the wolf-dog Balto fall for each other. Real red Huskies are more of a brownish colour; however, Jenna's deep red colour better invokes this trope.
• Andrea Beaumont in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is Batman's auburn-haired ex-fiancée.
• Screatte (a red Sabertooth Squirrel) to Scrat from Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
• In Epic (2013), Nod falls in love with redhead MK.
• In Frozen, The Hero Anna quickly falls for the redheaded Hans. Subverted when it turns out he's a villain, and she ends up with the blonde Kristoff. Since Anna is a redhead herself, Kristoff applies this trope to her in the end.
• Roxanne is Max's Love Interest in A Goofy Movie and Sylvia is for Goofy in the direct-to-video sequel.
• In The Incredibles, Mr. Incredible/Bob Parr's wife, Elastigirl/Helen Parr, is a redhead.
• In Disney's The Little Mermaid, Prince Eric has it bad for Ariel and would risk life and limb for her.
• In The Lorax (2012), the redheaded Audrey is an inserted love interest for Zac Efron's character, who is the guy who finds the Once-ler.
• Monster House: Brunet DJ wins the red-haired Jenny over Chowder during the climax, even getting a peck on the lips.
• The red-haired Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas is Jack's love interest.
• In The Nutcracker Prince, Hans/Nutcracker and Clara fit this trope. Clara becomes a pretty heroic redhead herself over the course of the film.
• Even though he wasn't interested at first, Shrek gets to fall in love with Fiery Redhead Princess Fiona once they get to know more about each other in Shrek.
• Jay in Sky Blue. The events of the film are seen mainly through her eyes.
• The Sword in the Stone is an inverted example. The red girl squirrel wants our hero, Wart, who was in the body of a squirrel at the time. Wart isn't into her since, as he puts it, he won't be a squirrel tomorrow.
• Buzz Lightyear seems to hold a torch for Jessie in Toy Story 3.
• Both Roger Rabbit and his voluptuous wife Jessica from Who Framed Roger Rabbit are redheads and they show to be very in love with each other.
• In Zootopia, police officer Judy Hopps forms a close bond and shares a lot of chemistry with her partner, the red-haired fox Nick Wilde. Whether they will become a couple is left open.
• Ginger in Chicken Run, has red feathers and is the primary Love Interest of Rocky, the Rhode Island Red.

Films — Live-Action

• Aquaman: Mera is a redheaded Ms. Fanservice. Arthur lampshades this, saying, "Redheads! Gotta love 'em!"
• Cate Blanchett's character in Bandits has two very different Anti Heroes who want her.
• In Batman & Robin: Robin completely falls in love with Poison Ivy after meeting her only once, even ignoring the fact that she's a villain. Ivy seduces him into believing she loves him too and is willing to perform a Heel–Face Turn to be with him, and Robin thinks Batman trying to keep them apart is him being jealous of their love. Robin eventually wises up and takes precaution against Ivy by wearing rubber lips to protect himself from her Kiss of Death. This ends with him outsmarting Ivy by tricking her into revealing her plan to him by acting like he's still blindly in love with her and she reveals her true nature after they share a kiss.
• Both of Benjamin's romantic relationships in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button involve redheads.
• Kevin Costner's directorial debut Dances with Wolves has Col. Dunbar falling for the Raised by Natives Stands-With-A-Fist.
• Days of Thunder has Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's characters (Cole and Claire) falling for each other in a NASCAR race setting.
• It's redheaded April who ends up with Will in Definitely, Maybe.
• Deborah Kerr was this trope in many of her films - such as The Prisoner of Zenda, King Solomon's Mines, An Affair to Remember and The King and I - where she was a beautiful redhead who attracted the male hero. Subverted in Black Narcissus where her character, a nun, was rejected by two suitors - and the second suitor rejects another redhead who makes advances on him.
• The redheaded Lucy in Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula is pursued by three suitors who all turn heroic by the end of the film. In the original novel, the character is a brunette. Sadie Frost (who played Lucy) dyed her natural brown hair red because it was thought that she and star Winona Ryder looked too similar.
• Elizabeth has Cate Blanchett in this trope once again as Queen Elizabeth I. Although becoming King of England is a huge draw as well, Elizabeth is portrayed as very beautiful and desirable. She was reportedly known for her beautiful red hair in her youth. Her half-sister Mary was a similar case, noted to have beautiful red or red-gold hair when she was young (their father, Henry VIII, was a redhead). It had faded to grey by the time she did get married, so she rarely gets portrayed this way.
• Everybody Wants Some!! has the protagonist Jake pursuing a cute redhead called Beverly. As Jake is on a baseball scholarship, he fits some of the 'hero' qualifications. Before he learns her name, he even addresses a letter to "the auburn-haired girl in room 307".
• Far and Away: Joseph takes quite a liking to Shannon, an Irish immigrant with unsurprisingly red hair. At least a couple of the more minor characters are attracted to her as well.
  Coniff: I think the prettiest girl in this factory, the one with the prettiest eyes, and the prettiest red hair, is Joseph's sister ^note They're only pretending to be brother and sister.- if you don't mind me saying so, Joseph.
  Joseph: Well, you can say what you like, lad. But I warn you, that redhead has a bite that stings.
• Korben Dallas hooks up with Leeloo in The Fifth Element.
• The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love: Randy has light red hair and ends up with Evie at the end.
• Pepper Potts (played by the blonde Gwyneth Paltrow) in Iron Man and its sequels is this to Tony Stark. The sequel, added Natasha Romanoff AKA Black Widow (also portrayed by a blonde actress) but she was more of a romantic interest in later films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe especially in Avengers: Age of Ultron for Bruce Banner.
• Clara Bow's career was made of being in this role. She was one of the earliest Hollywood sex symbols. Due to being a silent era actress her films weren't in colour, however the effect was still the same. Her Star-Making Role was in 1927's It. In it, she played a redheaded shopgirl named Betty who had "it" (an Unusual Euphemism for sex appeal).
• It (2017): Both Bill and Ben have a crush on Beverly thanks to her red hair; Ben calls it “winter fire” in a poem to her and Bill sketches Bev’s face and hair. Unfortunately Bev’s Pervert Dad likes her hair too.
• James Bond has slept with four redheads and only killed one of them! Connery's Bond stated in Diamonds Are Forever that he did really like redheads. Other Bonds' opinions on the matter are unknown.
• Jurassic Park:
  • The Lost World: Jurassic Park: Ian Malcolm's girlfriend is Sarah Harding.
  • Owen Grady falls for Claire Dearing in Jurassic World, though their first date was unsuccessful. After she saves him from a rogue Dimorphodon, Owen gives her a big kiss and at the end they survive the dinosaur rampage and "stick together for survival".
• Love Is Not Perfect: Elena's female Love Interest, Adriana, is a spunky redhead.
• In The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob, a Jewish matchmaker asks the disguised Mohammed what kind of woman he prefers, and he reluctantly mentions a thing for redheads. At the end of the film Pivert's daughter runs away from her Arranged Marriage and her veil flies off, revealing very bright red hair. Naturally it's Love at First Sight for the both of them.
• In Mad Max: Fury Road, after Nux's Heel–Face Turn, it's heavily implied he's developed feelings for Capable.
• Satine in Moulin Rouge! is the redheaded beloved of the hero Christian.
• Oblivion (2013) : Victoria is a redhead, and presented as a Love Interest. It turns out that both her and Jack are repeatedly cloned and made to work together.
• Pretty Woman where Richard Gere falls in love with a Hooker with a Heart of Gold portrayed by Julia Roberts, no matter what blonde wig she had worn.
• The Quiet Man: John Wayne's love interest? The quintessential redhead, Maureen O'Hara.
• Layla in Sky High (2005).
• In the Spider-Man Trilogy, Kirsten Dunst dyed her blonde hair to play the redheaded love interest Mary Jane. Ironically, in Spider-Man 3, true redhead Bryce Dallas Howard dyed hers to play the blonde rival love interest Gwen Stacy.
• Star Trek (2009) movie has Kirk rolling around with a Green-Skinned Space Babe with red hair (instead of black). That same Green Space Babe later plays Scarlett in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, who is lusted after by Ripcord (who is black).
• In the Terminator series, Catherine Brewster, introduced in the third film, becomes John Connor's wife (and mother of his child) in the future war.
• Theresa & Allison: Theresa is the protagonist (who's more heroic than most vampires in the film) and attracted to red-haired Allison quickly, becoming her lover.
• In Titanic (1997), Rose finds a hero in Jack Dawson.
• Eliot Ness from The Untouchables (1987) is married to a lovely redhead named Catherine.
• Elvis Presley woos Ann-Margret in Viva Las Vegas!.
• In The Village, Lucius is infatuated with Ivy Walker instead of her blonde sister Kitty.
• Princess Sorsha in Willow was auburn-haired. Rather too scary to be generally desirable, but very pretty and, obviously, Madmartigan wants her.
• In the X-Men Film Series, Wolverine falls for Jean Grey.

Literature

• Alanna in Alanna: Song of the Lioness, being a hero herself, was romantically pursued by the three greatest heroes in the story; namely, her Warrior Prince (Jonathan), The King of Thieves (George), and The Shang Dragon (Liam).
• Anne from Anne of Green Gables is an example, though it may not be immediately obvious because she complains so much about having red hair. She is proposed to five times in Anne of the Island, twice by Gilbert Blythe, whom she eventually marries.
• Maira in Archvillain has red hair and is the Implied Love Interest of both Kyle and Mike. It's implied that she will end up with Mike.
• Beauty, the heroine of Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast, has dull features while she's growing up, but by the end of the book it's revealed that she actually has red-gold hair and amber-green eyes, putting the Beast squarely into this trope. Her earlier narrative makes it clear that she inherited these features from her mother, who had the same coloring.
• The Belgariad: Garion and the red-headed princess, Ce'Nedra, spend most of their time arguing from the moment they first meet. That, and the fact they're about fifteen when they first meet, means it takes them some time to figure out they're in love with each other and meant to spend the rest of their (very long) lives together. Just as well, because The Purpose of the Universe planned for them to marry thousands of years before they were even born.

• All of the princesses of A Brother's Price are noted to have hair of "the royal red". Jerin ends up marrying them all.
• Renn, the female lead of The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, is red-haired.
• In City of Devils and its sequel, maiden witches tend to have red hair and green eyes. It's subverted, as Hexene Candlemas and Lily Salem both have a little romantic tension with Nick Moss, he doesn't actually end up with either one.
• In Jack Vance's The Demon Princes, Kirth Gersen's final love is the orange-haired Alice Wroke.
• Dora Wilk of her Dora Wilk Series is a redheaded hero and the love interest of another hero, Miron.
• Averted in Dragon Bones: The protagonist Ward notices that a pretty redhead smiles at him, and blushes when he smiles back. He... goes on adventuring, and she's not mentioned again. The woman who fascinates him has a more common hair color.
• In Kristin Cashore's Fire, there are certain beings called "monsters" with brightly colored hair in unusual shades, who are extraordinarily attractive and entrance people with their appearance. The titular heroine is one of these monsters and has shimmering hair in multiple shades of red, with occasional strands of pink and orange that make it look like a sunset. Like all other monsters, she is seen by everyone around her as incredibly beautiful. Her father, also a monster, had gleaming silver hair with hints of blue, making him a White Hair, Black Heart - the evil kind.
• In Firebird, Ilya finally falling for the Firebird at the end.
• Two examples in The First Dwarf King. Iris has scarlet hair, and she's Jani's girlfriend. Then there's Aristomache, ruby-headed wife of Cenric.
• Jonas from The Giver has his Stirrings for Fiona, who has red hair.
• Male/male example: Ash Trine is the primary love interest of Kieran Trevarde in The God Eaters.
• Harry Potter, of course, follows in the footsteps of his father James, who loved the redhead Lily Evans. Harry falls in love with and eventually marries Ginny Weasley. J. K. Rowling has stated she likes redheads. Funnily, the other two main characters end up together; brunette Hermione ends up with redhead Ron, brother of Ginny.
• In the male/male romance Hot Head, Griff's red-headedness is repeatedly presented as highly desirable, though it isn't so much his hair that gets people's attention as his very white skin.
• In the Iremonger Series Clod Iremonger falls in love with red-haired Lucy Pennant, despite her being a servant and him already being engaged to someone else.
• Dave from John Dies at the End ends up with a girl with copper-colored hair.
• Clarissa MacDougal Kinnison, of E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman saga, is not merely a redhead — she's the Penultimate Human Woman, the unknowing culmination of millennia of a secret alien breeding program, and being a redhead is a distinguishing feature of that line going back to the Fall of Atlantis. She's destined to be the hero's One True Love — since he's the male Penultimate.
• In the The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies, the main character, Locke, is hopelessly in love with a woman named Sabetha. One of the only traits revealed about her is that she is a redhead.
• April Rose, Mack Bolan's Love Interest throughout the 1980's when he worked for Stony Man.
• Played with in The Mirrorworld Series with Jacob and Fox. Even though she's obviously in love with him, he doesn't seem to display much more than a platonic attachment to her. Yet.
• Mina Duplessis of Mr Blank and the sequel is a redhead. And a plus-sized model. And the agent of a feminist conspiracy.
  • Paul Tallutto, the head of the First Reformed Church of the Antichrist is an inversion, as he's a villain who wants redheads. And lots of them.
• In The Night Mayor, the protagonist is an author who hit the big time with a romantic thriller starring Vanessa Vail, a flame-haired action heroine who has three heroes fighting for her hand.
• Many, many heroes (and many, though fewer, heroines) from the Scottish-set breed of historical romance novels. Getting distinct vibes of Outlander and Diana Gabaldon here...
• Starting with The Titan's Curse, the titular character of the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians has two main love interests: blonde Annabeth and redhead Rachel. Eventually subverted in the final book, as Rachel dumps him (when they weren't going out in the first place, no less) in favor of becoming the new Oracle of Delphi. He gets Annabeth in the end.
  • Ironically enough, the only red headed goddess, Artemis (The Goddess of virgins) is by far the most popular god on fanfiction.net based on the amount of stories tagged with her name, with tons of stories with her having red haired children....
• In Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain, Eilonwy is the main character Taran's love interest. Her hair is actually described as "red-gold", but yeah, it's the same idea.
• The title character of Richard III in the 21st Century falls for redheaded Sarah Levine.
• Saga of Recluce: Redheads of all sorts figure prominently, and this trope is frequently played straight, inverted, and subverted, sometimes all in the same book.
• Saint George and the Dragon: The knight is smitten with red-haired Una after he sees her when she's changed into a fine dress on coming home, and he readily agrees to marry her, becoming king after her father (once he fulfills his quest, that is), but beforehand the knight didn't appear to have noticed her at all that way.
• The Scarlet Pimpernel, widely considered to be the first Super Hero, was married to the red-headed Marguerite.
• In The Selection, Prince Maxon has a choice of 35 girls and takes a liking to America, the only redhead in the competition. America is also in the middle of Love Triangle between Maxon and her first love, Aspen.
• Nearly every hero in Terry Brooks's Shannara series fits this trope. Wil Ohmsford and Amberle Elessedil in The Elfstones of Shannara (but this is subverted when, following Amberle's transformation into the Ellcrys tree, Wil marries the black-haired Eretria), Par Ohmsford and Damson Rhee in the Heritage Of Shannara quadrilogy, Bek Ohmsford and Rue Meridian in the Voyage Of The Jerle Shannara trilogy, and Panterra Qu with Prue Liss in the Legends of Shannara duology.
• The Silerian Trilogy: Tansen, the hero, grows to love red-haired Mirabar, and eventually she reciprocates.
• Sisterhood Series by Fern Michaels: Bert Navarro wants Kathryn Lucas, who has red hair. Weekend Warriors had Jack Emery hanging out with a redhead, who turned out to be his sister-in-law, and he did that just to make his blonde girlfriend, Nikki Quinn, jealous. Ted Robinson really likes redheads, if his relationship with Maggie Spritzer is anything to go by.
• A Song of Ice and Fire has a long list:
  • Ygritte, a wildling woman who becomes Jon Snow's Temporary Love Interest, has bright ginger red hair.
    • Jon also thinks Melisandre (a woman with blood red hair) is very beautiful, but in more of an unsettling way.
  • Jon's father Ned Stark is happily married to auburn-haired Catelyn Tully, albeit it was an Arranged Marriage.
  • Catelyn's daughter Sansa is her spitting image and a Dude Magnet herself. Unfortunately, in poor Sansa's case, this is mostly averted to Villains (or Anti-Villains in Sandor's case) Want Redheads, as out of her two biggest admirers, one is a bitterly cynical Blood Knight, the other a Yandere Magnificent Bastard, not to mention The Caligula that is her former boyfriend Joffrey, massive Anti-Hero dwarf husband Tyrion Lannister and her last betrothed is a Jerk Jock who has already impregnated two chicks in his late teens.
  • Wildling society as a whole favors redheads, believing them to be "kissed by fire."
  • Jaime Lannister, another POV character, found Catelyn's sister (that has the typical Tully coloring) rather pretty and Catelyn herself interesting as a teenager.
  • There's also Rohanne Webber with whom Duncan, the protagonist of the Dunk&Egg tales, is infatuated.
• Star Wars:
  • Shira Brie and Mara Jade were both Luke Skywalker's love interests, and the latter became his wife. And remained with him until her death in Sacrifice...thought to have been at the hands of the other, interestingly, until it was revealed to have been Jacen who killed her.
  • Dani! The Bantam era preferred brown hair, but he ultimately got a redhead. As well, as a Zeltron, she had red skin...
  • Jacen Solo and Tenel Ka (who is a QUEEN, to boot).
  • Apparently, Skywalkers have a thing for redheads (this next comment applies to the Legacy comic series); Cade (one of the two remaining descendants of Luke and Mara) has a new love interest in the form of a former childhood friend, Azlyn Rae. It's far too early for confirmation, but it does seem to be going somewhere. The sole exeption is Anakin Skywalker, it seems.
  • Why limit the "red things growing out of the girl's head" to hair? Cade also hooks up with red Twi'lek Darth Talon. As if to drive the point home, the red Twi'leks are rare because their red skin is the result of a mutated gene. Likewise, red hair is rare and results from a mutated blonde hair gene. She's as close to a redhead as a hairless alien babe can get.
  • In The Han Solo Trilogy, though he has other romances over the course of the books, Bria is clearly the one Han never got over and wanted the most. Of course, we know that he ends up with Leia in the end, though it still holds up during the trilogy. Interestingly, all his other girlfriends are dark-haired.
• In Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins, both the "hero" and his love interest have red hair.
• Somewhat subverted with Karen in The Three Worlds Cycle. Karen, a redhead, is technically a hero, but her love interest Llian is something of a bumbling klutz. He does turn out to be a bit of a hero in the end, though, so I guess it's alright eventually...
• Over the course of the first Time Scout book, Malcolm Moore falls for redheaded Margo Smith. Hard.
• Bella Swan's vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen from Twilight has reddish-brown hair, as does their infamous daughter.
• Villains by Necessity: Kaylana, since she's got both Sam and Fenwick trying to get her attention.
• The War Against the Chtorr. Colonel 'Lizard' Tirelli, the protagonist's love interest — may be one of several deliberate Robert A. Heinlein references in this sci-fi series.
• Red hair is one of the most common colors among the Aiel in The Wheel of Time, so two of Rand's three are redheads (one is strawberry blonde). Chiad qualifies as well (though that relationship is very minor and very complicated).
• In Words of Radiance, second book of The Stormlight Archive, when the opening steps of a marriage between high noble Adolin Kholin and red-headed Impoverished Patrician Shallan Davar are set in motion in the first few chapters and they quickly fall for each other once they actually meet up.
• Virginia Crowe, the love interest of the teenage title character in the Young Sherlock Holmes series, is a redhead. Whenever he thinks of her, one of the first things to come to his mind is her cascade of red hair.

Live-Action TV

• 24: This trope, combined with their Slap-Slap-Kiss dynamic, is what happened between Jack Bauer and Agent Renee Walker a few minutes before she was killed. Jack was also married to Terri, a redhead, and had a brief romantic relationship with Nina Myers prior to the events of Season 1.
• The Affair: Noah has an affair with Alison, a rather striking redhead. His wife is a Brainy Brunette.
• The Andy Griffith Show: Andy Taylor's long-time girlfriend (and eventual wife) Helen Crump.
• Angel: A flashback episode had a character bringing this up, mentioning this trope. Though it seems that Angel and The Doctor share tastes. After all, his romantic interests have almost all been blonde (Kate, Nina, Buffy, Darla), and it was said that he and Spike slept together once (offhanded comment by Spike in S5 implied it was ONLY once).
• Attila: Attila's first wife N'Kara was a redhead. Flavius Aetius uses this to his advantage when he recruits a Roman woman lusting for vengeance against the Huns who resembles Attila's late wife to make Attila fall in love with her, providing a perfect opportunity to assassinate him.
• This was averted in Batman (1966). Barbara Gordon was introduced in the show however she was not Robin's love interest as she is today; Dick was several years her junior anyway. She also wasn't Batman's love interest. Barbara wasn't even a real redhead when introduced. In the series, her natural hair is brown while her iconic red hair is a wig.
• Battlestar Galactica: President Laura Roslin is a redhead and has no shortage of male admirers in spite of her age, health, and position. She is also a change for partner Bill Adama, whose previous interests in flashbacks have been blondes.
• The Bill: In one episode, DC Banks and DC Webb have a tough interview with a suspect, who is aided by a red-haired solicitor. Webb comments he'd like to sleep with her. It's established that Banks does sleep with her - she's his wife, using her maiden name for work.
• Bomb Girls: Betty with Kate.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Would Willow Rosenberg be a case of Werewolves and Lesbian Witches want Redheads? Also, annoying potential slayers and occasionally Xander. And a demon/robot.
• Castle: Almost every important woman in Richard Castle's life is a redhead, from the 'one who got away' to his first ex-wife, even his mother and his daughter. Seemingly averted by Kate Beckett, his Love Interest in the show — until you realize that her brown hair is a curiously red shade of brown.
• Charmed amusingly had Paige dyeing her hair red coincide with her suddenly being seen with a different guy every week. When she changed to a more muted strawberry blonde, she ended up with a long term love interest.
• Community:
  • Troy and Abed avoid the Love Triangle fight over the redhead librarian with a surprisingly un-Zany Scheme.
  • During the sixth season, as most of the characters are imagining what Season Seven would be like, Jeff imagines that the new group is a bunch of attractive red-headed women. This is also a case of Author Appeal, as Dan Harmon has stated that he is attracted by red-heads.
• Desperate Housewives: Orson Hodge had a wife, a mistress, and a second wife, all red heads. Even lampshaded when wife #1 (who'd vanished before he met and married Bree, the second wife) reappeared.
  Alma: So what is it with you and red heads?
• Doctor Who:
  • In the Made-for-TV Movie, the Doctor's love interest Grace Holloway is a redhead.
  • Not to mention the Tenth Doctor's... relations with Queen Elizabeth I.
  • Amy Pond's fiancé, Rory, since he spent two thousand years, without so much as a magazine to read, guarding her while she was in kinda-stasis, kinda-death so that the Doctor could use the powers of the Timey-Wimey Ball to bring her back to life after he was reincarnated as a killer robot.
  • And of course good old wacky Eleven himself, who has undying love for his ginger Amelia Pond.
  • In "Amy's Choice", this trope is specifically referenced when the Dream Lord mockingly says "Loves a redhead, our naughty Doctor."
  • "Vincent and the Doctor" has a mutual attraction between redheads Amy and Vincent, Rory being absent at the time due to his death and retgoning in "Cold Blood", as a result of which Amy no longer remembered him.
    Vincent: Your hair is orange.
    Amy: (leaning in flirtatiously) So is yours.
  • An interesting variant occurs with the Doctor as well, as they've always wanted to be a redhead. Both the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors were annoyed when they discovered they were brown-haired.
    STILL not ginger!
• Engrenages: Pierre with Joséphine.
• Firefly:
  • Saffron, which is a Subverted Trope by Mal not showing any initial interest in her. Flipped on its head when she appears to seduce him and then flipped right back into subversion again when she knocks him out and reveals herself to be a con artist; then almost flipped back into played straight when she reappears and, after a successful heist, they seem to have a "moment"... but then it's bounced right back to subverted when she double crosses him. Saffron was, of course, played by Christina Hendricks, as mentioned for Mad Men. There's also Nandi.
  • Wash probably counts, too, being Zoe’s red haired husband.
  • Kaylee for Simon.
• Fraggle Rock: Red would be a case of "redheads want heroes".
• Game of Thrones:
  • Ned Stark is happily married to auburn-haired Catelyn Tully and their daughter Sansa (who takes after her mother) is regarded as very attractive. Inverted with the Faux Affably Evil Littlefinger being in love with Catelyn.
  • Jon Snow falls in love with red-haired Ygritte. He has also been attracted to the red-haired Ros. Inverted with the red-haired Melisandre, who unsuccessfully tried to seduce him.
• Grimm: Juliet, the lead character Nick's girlfriend. Angelina, Monroe's ex, was also a redhead.
• Harrow: Harrow falls hard for the redheaded Sgt. Dass. However, his secrets and her inmate curiosity drive a wedge between them.
• I Love Lucy: Redheaded Lucy is very much loved by her husband Ricky, no matter how crazy she drives him sometimes. Although she freely admitted that she was not a natural redhead either on the show or in real life.
• Jayma Mays: This beautiful redhead has been this in all of her parts. She was wanted by the Hiro on Heroes, Will on Glee, and an episode of Pushing Daisies. Even Paul Blart: Mall Cop wanted her. Inverted Trope on Ugly Betty, where she was an Evil Redhead.
• Lie to Me: Almost every important woman in Cal Lightman's life is redheaded, too. His daughter Emily has long red hair, his mother (in flashbacks) is shown to have had an auburn shade, and his partner Gillian is a strawberry-blonde (though it's not natural, unless her dark hair in the "Sweet Sixteen" flashbacks was dyed).
• Mad Men: Notably an Averted Trope; the hero dates brunettes, marries a blonde, and is the only (straight) man on Earth who's apparently oblivious to Joan Holloway (played by the...voluptuous Christina Hendricks), one of the greater redheads of this or any time. Avoided by Don. Roger Sterling and Paul Kinsey, who certainly agree with the trope.
• NCIS: Gibbs has been married four times and all of his wives were redheads. His first wife Shannon was killed while they were still married and the other three wives are ex-wives. He's also had an affair with his (redheaded) boss and was dating a redheaded Army investigator. And everyone else recognizes it. When he first met the investigator, the other team members noted the growing attraction and pointed out the red hair as proof it was inevitable. Tony even said that "Gibbs just met his fourth ex-wife". Possibly hereditary - his father had Betty Grable painted on the nose of his P-51, but Gibbs' mother was a redhead.
  • Gibbs is so much this that he seems utterly bewildered by his attraction to a brunette lawyer, even asking if she used to be a redhead.
  • Oddly averted with his Distaff Counterpart, CGIS Agent Abigail Borin. Despite the mutual respect and identical personalities, there's no hint of an attraction between them. When the team discusses the possibility of fixing them up, no one even makes note of her hair color.
• NUMB3RS: Robin Brooks, Don's on-and-off again girlfriend. And fiancee by the end of the series.
• The Office (US): Pam, who not only is part of the Official Couple with Jim, but, early on, was part of a Love Triangle with her in between two guys. She is also considered the office hottie with several of the other guys attracted to her. The show also has Meredith, who is widely considered to be a gross Lady Drunk, yet somehow also Really Gets Around.
• Power Rangers: Dino Thunder: Possibly Tommy and Hayley. The writers left it open in case they wanted to bring back Catherine Sutherland as Kat, but Tommy and Hayley certainly flirt quite a bit.
• Rebelde Way. Pablo is a ladies' man, but the one girl who got the closest to earn his love beyond just physical attraction (and with him forms the second main couple of the series) is Marizza, notable in that she's the only redhead in the ensemble cast (even if it's dyed).
• Revolution: Emma in the episode "Home". Back in the day, she was Miles Matheson's highschool fiance. Then she ends up revealing that she cheated on him with Sebastian Monroe and gave birth to Monroe's son.
• Robin of Sherwood: Seems to have firmly established Maid Marian (or Marion, if you will) in the collective unconscious as a feisty redhead.
• Sleepy Hollow: Ichabod Crane's wife Katrina is a Fiery Red Head Hot Witch.
• Smallville: Lionel Luthor has shown an attraction to redheads — his wife, mistress, and Martha Kent all have or had red hair. Though the 'hero' part is rather questionable.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: Had the gorgeous Dr. Beverly Crusher, who Picard has been in love with for years; DS9 had Major Kira Nerys, who Odo had been after for six years before finally getting her in "His Way"; and then, of course, there's Chakotay's blatantly obvious feelings for Captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager.
• In Season 2 of Stranger Things, Dustin and Lucas both fall for the new Tomboy in town, Max, who has long flaming red hair Lucas ends up dating her. A scene where Eleven catches Max and Mike hanging out leads her to thinking that this trope is in play (far from it, Mike can't stand Max).
• Swingtown: Everyone, including women, wants Susan.
• Supernatural: In Season 4, Dean hooks up with a Fallen Angel named Anna who has firey red hair. Zachariah also reminds him of his crush on Ginger, from Gilligan's Island.
• That '70s Show: He's not exactly a hero, but this show had main character Eric Forman's love interest be the red haired Donna. Although he loved it when she went blonde in season seven.
• Todd and the Book of Pure Evil: Averted Trope. The main character, Todd, continually spurns the advances of the redheaded science geek who has a massive crush on him, focusing all his energy on Jenny, his would-be Love Interest.
• Ugly Betty: Inverted Trope with Charlie.
• The West Wing: Someone behind the scenes, probably Aaron Sorkin, has a thing for redheads. CJ, Zoey, Margaret, Mallory, Andy, Abby, Joey, Ginger, and Jenny are all some shade of red.
• Willow: Siblings Airk and Kit both have love interests with red hair. Dove has hers dyed blonde at first, but her color slowly comes out as she uses magic. Jade on the other hand has bright red curly hair from the start. In the former case, Airk doesn't actually know Dove's real hair color (just as she didn't originally).
• The X-Files: Scully. Scully's red hair became a trademark for the show, as did the UST between Mulder and Scully.

Music

• Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl".
• Bruce Springsteen's "Red-Headed Woman". Dedicated to/inspired by Patti Scalfa, no doubt.
• In Dolly Parton's "Jolene", the eponymous temptress is described as a incomparable beauty, with "flamin' locks of auburn hair", who has bewitched the hapless speaker's husband. She's got green eyes to boot.
• Richard Thompson's "1952 Vincent Black Lightning". Doubles as Villains Want Redheads, since the protagonist of the song is a petty criminal:
  "Said James, 'In my opinion,
  There's nothing in this world
  Beats a '52 Vincent
  And a redheaded girl."

Pinball

• Of all of Spider-Man's romantic interests from the Comic Books, Gottlieb's The Amazing Spider-Man pinball only features redheaded Mary Jane.

Pro Wrestling

• Hmm, the list of redheaded Lita's suitors - Dean Malenko, Matt Hardy, Kane, and Edge. Two of these, Hardy and Adam "Edge" Copeland, were in Real Life as well.
• Maria Kanellis really got around as a redhead - Santino Marella, Dolph Ziggler, The Great Khali, Matt Hardy, and, um, Candice Michelle.
• Eugene to red-haired Christy Hemme.

Theatre

• In Tanz Der Vampire Alfred is fascinated and smitten with the redheaded (and very busty) Magda — until he sees Sarah. However, in several productions Sarah is redheaded, thus playing this completely straight.
• While Jerk Jock Brett has a Betty and Veronica with a blonde and brunette in 13, our hero Evan is trying to date cute redhead Patrice.

Video Games

• AdventureQuest Worlds has an interesting inversion. Many players decide to join the evil side because they like Gravelyn's design. Try to guess what color her hair is.
• Atlantis: The Lost Tales: Seth and Anna.
• Tsubaki Yayoi from BlazBlue is a redheaded lady and the love interest for Jin Kisaragi (and, by extension, Hakumen).
• In Bully, Jimmy and Zoe end up together at the end of the game.
• Leena from Chrono Cross is a seeming subversion as she had the misfortune of being Serge's Unlucky Childhood Friend, and thus loses out to the blond girl. However, the Good Ending pushes a reset button that erases Serge's memories of the blonde and puts her back to the top of the list, until the credits roll and we learn that Serge ended up with the blond anyways.
• Lucia from Devil May Cry 2 has mutual attraction with the hero Dante.
• Kyrie from Devil May Cry 4 easily wins the heart of her Childhood Sweetheart Nero.
• Both Haru and Yuzu in Devil Survivor, both of whom show interest in the protagonist.
• In the Dragon Age series:
  • Any of the potential Love Interests in any game may qualify if the player character is designed to have red hair, although the nature of the games will not allow the love interests to comment on it.
  • Leliana in Dragon Age: Origins is wanted not just by the heroes, but by the heroines, as well. Not that she minds.
  • Subverted in Dragon Age II: in Act 2, Hawke can attempt to initiate a romance with another Orlesian redhead, Aveline Vallen, but she ultimately rejects him/her for Guardsman Donnic - and it's implied that she had no idea that Hawke was flirting at the time.
  • In the Mark of the Assassin DLC, however, the red-haired Tallis can be romanced, although this is more of a short-term fling than a serious romantic engagement, and nothing happens if Hawke is already in a romance with another party member.
  • In Dragon Age: Inquisition, The Iron Bull admits that he's got a thing for redheads and the fact that Leliana is your spymaster was why he did some research on her and the Inquisition.
    • Chief Movran the Under qualified in the past, but warns about the consequences. "A redheaded mother guarantees a brat!"
• Inverted: Ritz, the literal red head (who actually has white hair) from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, has some feelings for Marche. So, it's the redhead who wants the hero.
• Rose of Sharron Cassidy aka Cass from Fallout: New Vegas has ginger hair hidden under her straw cowgirl hat and is one of the most popular love interests for the Courier.
• Cait from Fallout 4 is a tough as nails Irish rose whom can be romanced by the player.
• Fire Emblem:
  • In Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, the redheaded male lord Roy can have six different possible brides (and one of them, the dancer Lalam, is a redhead as well). In the prequel, The Blazing Blade, his also redheaded father Eliwood can have three possible girlfriends (but no redheads this time).
  • In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, the redheaded Cavalier named Kent has three possible love interests, the Pegasus Knight Fiora, her Tsundere sister Farina, and Action Girl heroine Lyn.
    • For a traditional female version, look no further than White Magician Girl/Magic Knight Priscilla, who has three official love interests (though she only gets to keep one of them, the others have to go) and arguably has chemistry with two other guys.
    • All-around sweetheart Nino has a lot of romantic build-up with redheaded Jaffar.
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones:
    • One of Princess Eirika's four suitors is a redhead male, Seth the Silver Knight. This support/ending is also ridiculously easy and fast to get.
    • Another male inversion: Natasha can support and have a happy ending with two redheads. Interestingly, they form a Betty and Veronica dynamic, with Joshua being a gambling addict and Seth being Seth, though the triangle never comes up.
    • The mercenary Gerik attracts the attention of the red-haired dancer Tethys, and the magenta-haired myrmidon Marisa, and can end up in a paired ending with either of them.
  • Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance: Red-haired Titania has Ship Tease with Ike, Boyd and Rhys, though she can't actually pair with them. If you like your Les Yay, secondary hero Mist has this with Jill.
  • Averted by Fire Emblem: Awakening with red-haired Cordelia and Chrom: She can't even support with him, much less marry him! Can be played straight with Chrom and the female Avatar if one makes said Avatar a redhead. Not to mention the Avatar can also marry a variety of redheads: Anna and Cordelia for a male and Gaius, Gregor, Ricken and Gangrel for a female. The Avatar can also marry any of the children, who would qualify as a redhead except Lucina (always blue-haired) and Morgan (the Avatar's child) if their father is Gregor, Gaius, or Ricken. Chrom can also marry Sully, a red-haired Ladette.
  • Fire Emblem Fates gives you plenty of redheads to choose from. The Birthright/Hoshido side alone has Subaki, Saizo, Hinoka, and Sakura while the Conquest/Nohr side has Selena. Anna is an option again if her DLC map is played. Again, the Avatar can marry any child, who would qualify as a redhead except Shigure (always blue-haired) and Kana (the Avatar's child) if their mother is Hinoka, Sakura or Selena.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses allows a male Byleth to romance the Genki Girl magician Annette and, as of the Cindered Shadows DLC, the Deadpan Snarker magician and redhead Hapi. If Byleth is female, she can marry the Handsome Lech Sylvain.
• Depending on the player's choice, both Galaxy Angel trilogies can end with the lead male romantically partnering with their team's redhead. Forte, a busty shooter, for Tact in the first trilogy, and tomboyish Anise for Kazuya in the second.
• In the Golden Sun games, Isaac, the player character from the first game has Official Couple status with Fiery Redhead Jenna.
• Olivia Dickens, the wife of Commodore Dickens and the matriarch of the detective family, in Disney's Guilty Party.
• While not exactly a hero, the main character in the Harvest Moon games almost always has a redhead as one of the potential brides (and often husbands) to choose from:
  • Ann from Harvest Moon and Harvest Moon: Magical Melody is a tomboyish Fiery Redhead and Bungling Inventor.
  • Ann's granddaughter, also named Ann, is a bachelorette in Harvest Moon 64, Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, and Harvest Moon DS (though this Ann is the grandchild of the FOMT Ann). She is also tomboyish and is either a terrible cook (64) or the second best chef in town (everywhere else) depending on the game.
  • Katie in Save the Homeland and Magical Melody is a Lolita-wearing woman (though she is mistaken for a teenager often) with reddish hair. In the latter game she works at a cafe.
  • Nami from Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, A Wonderful Life Special Edition, and DS (AWL Nami's descendant) has dark red hair. She is an aloof traveler but will stay in town if befriended or married.
  • Three male examples are Rick, Gray (sometimes depicted as a blond due to graphical limitations), and Cliff (though, he's more of a brownish-red) from Harvest Moon: Back to Nature For Girl, More Friends Of Mineral Town, and DS. Rick was related to the original Ann in 64 (and thus was Ann's and Gray's cousin) but was inexplicably changed into Popuri's brother in future games without changing his design. Rick is a chicken farmer, Gray is a blacksmith, and Cliff travels around.
  • Magical Melody has two male examples in Basil and Blue. Blue is the quiet farmer and is basically Gray from 64 with a new name. Basil is a travelling botanist.
• Kairi of the Kingdom Hearts series. Sora (and possibly Riku) falls for her.
• It depends on your video card and your Player Character, but Carth Onasi from Knights of the Old Republic appears to be auburn-haired under high-end graphics cards. Oddly enough, none of the Player Character options are gingers.
• Laura Bow 2: The Dagger of Amon Ra has the titular hero fall in love with the hunky redheaded stevedore/art student.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Marin from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and possibly Malon from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Cremia from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask as well. It's not surprising because they're all the same person in terms of design. It's a well-known fact that the cast of Majora's Mask is almost completely comprised of Ocarina of Time expies, and the creators acknowledged that Talon and Malon were expies of Tarin and Marin from Link's Awakening.
  • As well as Midna from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, though it's unknown if it's romantic or not. Link does seem awfully surprised by Midna's true form (a fact she teases him about), but then again seeing someone turn from a small, childish imp to a tall, attractive humanoid woman would stun anyone.
  • In the original The Legend of Zelda, the sprite and artwork of Princess Zelda are shown with red/brown hair.
  • The only Zelda to give Link a kiss thus far has been the Sleeping Zelda from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. She is a redhead according to official art, not just due to color limitations.
• Love & Pies: Amelia, the protagonist, is a redhead, and her high school ex Joe, who helps her rebuild her mother's café, falls for her over the course of the game, after she divorced her husband.
• In MARDEK Chapter 3, Emela and Deugan play this pretty straight. Actually, nearly everyone in the royal guard wants Emela. Gloria, for her part, apparently attracts the lust of the entire male population of Canonia. Averted in that she only has eyes for a certain stammering Technical Pacifist inventor, who reciprocates her affections.
• One of the romance options for Shepard in Mass Effect 2 is Yeoman Kelly Chambers, your green-eyed redheaded personal assistant. As is the default female Shepard, to further float your boat.
• Metal Gear:
  • Metal Gear Solid did it, naturally - Snake had the lovely redheaded Meryl. And Johnny Sasaki, who, after a massive amount of level grinding, swept her off her feet and married her in the 4th game.
  • Averted in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance despite Mistral being very sexy Raiden spurns her flirtation due to being Happily Married to the dark haired Rose and Mistral being an evil cyborg terrorist.
• Elaine Marley from the Monkey Island series. It's worth noting that, originally, her hair was dark-brown-to-black in color, but the pressure of this trope led to her becoming a redhead in most of the sequels. And that wasn't all: even after Elaine's hair became fixed as red, her eye color shifted from blue to green, most likely due to the common association in fictional media of red hair with reen eyes.
• Neverwinter Nights 2 has Neeshka and Bishop; while neither is an "official" Love Interest, they were intended to be so, and there's enough remnants of their romantic dialogue to imply something was going on between them and the Knight-Commander if s/he rejected Elanee or Casavir.
• Planescape: Torment has two "romance" options (in quotation marks because the game doesn't really consummate the relationships). The one you can get farthest with, giving a deep and passionate kiss to, is the redhead Annah.
• Persona:
  • Mitsuru Kirijo from Persona 3 is one of several love interests. Yukari Takeba's hair color is an auburn that's closer to brown than red, but there's definitely some red in there. The latter is also the closest the game has to a default romantic interest.
  • Rise Kujikawa from Persona 4. She's only one of several romantic options, but she's the only one who falls for the protagonist whether you choose to date her or not. Redheads Want Heroes?
  • Kasumi Yoshizawa from Persona 5 Royal. Or rather, her sister Sumire Yoshizawa. Like Rise, she also falls in love with the protagonist even if he doesn't reciprocate.
• Claire Redfield from Resident Evil who went from auburn to full redhead in later games has gained the attraction of Steve Burnside and Neil Fisher Subverted though as Neil is revealed to be a Mad Scientist and turns into giant monster before getting killed and Steve also turns into a monster and dies though he at least has a Dying Declaration of Love to Claire. The only other man whose shown any attraction to Claire is Leon in the RE2make, but she’s a brunette there. Played Straight with Leon and Claire in Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness however.
  • Some Modders have changed remake Claire’s hair to auburn for those who prefer her redhead look.
• In Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, Gemini Sunrise is the main romantic option.

• In StarCraft, Jim Raynor wanted Sarah Kerrigan, who was a redhead pre-infestation.
• In Stardew Valley, The player can romance two redhead bachelorettes, Leah and Penny.
• Super Mario Bros.: The orange-haired redhead Princess Daisy is said to be Luigi's answer to Mario's Peach, and various indications in sports games have been shown to support this.
• Tales Series:
  • Luke fon Fabre from Tales of the Abyss. Just ask Tear. As well as Asch, just ask Natalia.
  • Iria Animi from Tales of Innocence.
• Riza in Treasure of the Rudra.
• In Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, the vampiric player character has the option to acquire a red-headed, green-eyed love interest pretty early on by saving her life and turning her into his or her devoted 'ghoul' (vampires mostly don't have sexual relations, but the 'blood bond' that arises between a vampire and his ghoul is described in-game as one of the most intense emotional sensations it is possible to experience), who will then provide perks, money, blood, conversation, and generally keep house while he or she is away on missions.
• Of course, fans debate exactly which hero wants Kumatora in Mother 3, but Duster seems to be the popular choice.
• The Witcher positively overflows with red-haired "love" interests to the point where you can safely assume it's possible to sleep with a woman if she has red hair. The game even features a Betty and Veronica triangle where both women are redheads.
• Coh Cott in The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble.
• Elly from Xenogears is a redhead and the love interest of the hero. Her hair is a slightly different color in each incarnation, but it still always is some shade of red.
• Likewise, Pyra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a redheaded Blade who also has fire powers, and is a possible love interest for Rex along with her other self, the blonde Mythra (but has more Ship Tease with him out of the two). He ends up marrying both of them and Nia as well.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest I: The Hero gets married to Princess Gwaelin◊, who has been consistently depicted as red-headed since the NES days.
  • Dragon Quest IV: Party member Kiryl has been infatuated with red-haired Alena since they were kids.
  • Dragon Quest VI: The Hero and red-haired Ashlynn have a Star-Crossed Lovers relationship.
  • Dragon Quest VIII: Angelo flirts with red-haired Jessica every so often.

Visual Novels

• Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club averted this trope since you can't romance the only redhead in the game, Mai.
• Fate/stay night has a gender reversal version of this, with Saber (being King Arthur gets you Hero status) and Shirou Emiya (our redheaded protagonist).
• Keiichi from Higurashi: When They Cry has two love interests, his redheaded friend Rena and his green haired friend Mion. Though the series focuses on The Power of Friendship it makes it clear that both feel attraction towards Keiichi. Each one appears as an Implied Love Interest depending on the arc/universe (for example in Onikakushi-hen it's implied that Keiichi fell for Rena while Watanagashi-hen leans towards Mion).
• Hisao from Katawa Shoujo can invoke this by choosing to go out with Rin Tezuka.
• Dahlia Hawthorne in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations, Phoenix's college love interest, is a redhead. Also subverted in that Dahlia's "twin" sister, Iris, who seems to have naturally black hair, is who he was actually dating.
• Though the main heroine is a blonde, most of the heroines of Tsukihime, and a few non-heroines as well, are redheads. Since the hero can score with any of the heroines, an overwhelming majority would make this game fit this troupe.

Web Animation

• Red vs. Blue:
  • Although they are never seen in the series without their helmets, this may be the case with Church and Tex. Virtually every piece of fanart that shows them without helmets depicts Tex as a redhead. It helps that Luke McKay, who originally put forth the concept in his artwork, has now become an Ascended Fanboy, working for Rooster Teeth officially, making the idea Fanon in a way.
  • Agent York from the Project Freelancer days had a major crush on the red-headed Carolina, though he never got a chance to act on his feelings before her disappearance.
• RWBY: While the main character Ruby is a Chaste Hero, Jaune plays a close second in terms of character spotlight. He is Oblivious to Love when it comes to his friend Pyrrha's crush on him and he himself has an unrequited crush on the white-haired Weiss instead. Later he turns out to reciprocate it after she gives him an emotional kiss. Sadly, this is just before she is killed and she subsequently becomes The Lost Lenore. Jaune values Pyrrha's memory dearly and laments not having the chance to reciprocate her feelings properly.
• In Happy Tree Friends, Petunia is an Official Couple with Handy, who is an orange beaver.

Webcomics

• In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Dr. McNinja's old girlfriend, Hortense, is a redhead.
• Chel, from Alien Dice, is the heroine of the story and Lexx's love interest. True to the trope, Chel is fiery and independent, and it's her stubborn nature which brings them together and prompts Lexx to fall in love with her. He finds her hair color strange (but pretty).
• Guinevere in Arthur, King of Time and Space.
• Kate, from Ctrl+Alt+Del.
• In Day By Day, Sam, the engineer/podcast host is a Redheaded Republican Sex Kitten and married to Spec Ops sniper Zed.
• White Mage from 8-Bit Theater. Black Mage comments on this when she first appears.
• Princess Voluptua in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!. Granted that her human form is an illusion and she is actually a giant alien butterfly - which Bob knows and which prevents any possible relationship between them - but even her butterfly form has those same long flowing locks of (presumably red) hair.
• Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire: the minor characters' love interests have red hair (Pam for Gregory, Jayden for Milov/Siegfried), while the main character's girlfriend, Luna, is the traditional blonde. However, it's interesting to note the shifts in the artist's coloring from the early days, when color strips were rarer; early pictures of Luna had redder hair (and Gregory, now a solid redhead, was fairer-haired).
• Nanase, from El Goonish Shive, is an odd example. She briefly dated the hero, before dumping him. He's dating a blonde now...And Nanase? Well, she's in a relationship with the hero's Opposite-Sex Clone.
  • Though Ellen now has drifted from Opposite Sex Clone to a different person entirely due to magical intervention which aged her soul. El Goonish Shive is really complex. And weird.
• Surma Carver from Gunnerkrigg Court: her love life prior to Antimony's birth is one of many unresolved (so far) mysteries. Annie's a redheaded herself, with too many other problems on her plate to think about romance for now.
• Daisy Archanis and Damien Vaeo from Last Res0rt. Arguably, Geisha too, although he's more a red body than anything...
• Tai and Ellen from Questionable Content, the latter a supporting character's ex-girlfriend, the former a college librarian in an all-girl Love Dodecahedron.
• Irregular Webcomic! has Ginny Smith. Nothing did come out of it for a long time, but after a Time Skip, she is now married to Erwin.
• Though not apparent, both Erika Hayasaka and Largo of MegaTokyo have red hair.
• In Looking for Group, the heroic Cale falls for the hot redheaded (possibly hybrid or pureblood) troll Benny.
• Blonde bard Elan is dating redhead thief Haley in The Order of the Stick.
• Tycho's wife from Penny Arcade, though Tycho isn't exactly heroic...
  • Given that the wives are just their real-life wives in comic form, this is more of a Real Life example than a webcomic example.
• This Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal manages to combine this trope for women with Red-Headed Stepchild for men.
• Anne Onymous, protagonist of The Wotch, is a red head, as are a few side characters. The (blond) Jason has a huge redhead fetish...so much so that he has a "Red-Head Sense". Also, whenever he is turned into a girl (which is fairly often), he's red-haired (and calls himself Sonja). Ironically, his one true love is a brunette.
• In Disney High School, Jim nurses a crush for Ariel and mentions that he has a thing for redheads. A lot of fans want him to hook up with Merida.

Web Original

• Penny in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog has red hair. However, this trope's twisted around a lot: Captain Hammer is the nominal hero, but he's a giant Jerkass and only wants her so Dr. Horrible can't have her. Dr. Horrible is the nominal villain, but he's the protagonist, is much more sympathetic than Captain Hammer, and likes Penny for herself.
• All of Channel Awesome wants Lupa. Except the ones who want Marz Gurl.
• In the webtoon "Geraldine", after the red-haired male protagonist somehow transforms into a female, guys become attracted to him (or "her").
• In the Whateley Universe, Stalwart is hot for red-headed Fey, but so is most of the campus. Averted in the cases of Lancer and Phase, who both pursue brunettes.
• Shipwrecked Comedy regularly plays this straight, thanks to Mary Kate Wiles being half of their resident Creator Couple.

Western Animation

• Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers: Shane was attracted to his redheaded teammate, Niko, but it was implied that he also shagged the crime boss Daisy O'Mega during "Renegade Rangers". And Shane wasn't the only one with a thing for redheads. Zach's wife, Eliza, was auburn-haired - making this trope one of the few things The Hero and The Lancer had in common!
• Gender inverted in Captain Planet and the Planeteers. Linka is essentially an environmental superheroine, and she quickly becomes attracted to her redheaded teammate, Wheeler, despite her constant effort to hide it. A good deal of Unresolved Sexual Tension and out-and-out flirting existed between them, until they eventually became the closest thing the team had to an Official Couple.
• In Castlevania The Hero Trevor Belmont eventually falls for the ginger haired Sypha Belnades and goes traveling with her at the end of Season 2. Ironically Sypha was actually blonde in the original Japanese game, only the Western made Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 and the Netflix show have her be red haired.
• Class of the Titans: Male heroes Jay and Archie paired with redheaded heroes Theresa and Atlanta respectively.
• On Clone High, Abe spent most of his time in love with black-haired Cleopatra, but, in the last episode, realized he was in love with magenta-haired Joan of Arc.
• In Daria, Daria's little sister, Quinn Morgendorffer, is the teen queen of this trope, as almost every guy who sees her is immediately hypnotized by her bouncy carrot-top (and tiny, cute pores!).
• Miss Vavoom for Droopy, especially in his shorts of Droopy and Son of Tom & Jerry Kids where he normally impersonates some sort of film or television hero.
• Although he's far from being a hero, Peter Griffin from Family Guy is this to his wife, Lois.
• The short lived Fish Police includes a fish-themed variant, with Gill's main Love Interest being the diner waitress Pearl, who has red scales and fins.
• One episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends features Mac, Bloo, a Prince Charming friend, and a pizza boy all falling for the red-headed Frankie, in addition to her own date. Another episode featured two nerdy guys falling for her as well. Mac continues to have a long time Precocious Crush on her throughout the series.
• In Futurama, Fry is the redheaded main character, but Leela is a hero and likes him. In her Adventures in Comaland, she imagines loads of crying women at his funeral. Also, when they encounter versions of themselves from an alternate universe (who are basically just Palette Swap versions of them), the alternate Leela and Fry are married, and the alternate Leela is a redhead.
• In the '80s G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, redheaded intelligence officer Scarlett was vaguely presented as a love interest for the heroic male lead, Duke. In the comics, she was the main squeeze of primary character Snake-Eyes.
• Gravity Falls has our protagonist Dipper Pines is quite infatuated with his new friend Wendy Corduroy. Even after she lets him down, he is still drawn to her. Also, it's mentioned somewhere he is drawn to redheads in general.
• Hanna-Barbera love this trope:
  • The classic example is Fred Flintstone's wife, Wilma.
  • Idem The Jetsons. The wife Jane is a redhead; ironically George is one too.
  • Fred to Daphne in several incarnation of Scooby-Doo, especially in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated where the two have a real and problematic relationship.
  • Though he's not the hero (he fits as a sort-of Lancer), Alan in Josie and the Pussycats would rather have the red-haired Josie than the raven-haired Alexandra.
• Teela, from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983). In a planned but never made sequel series starring He-Man's adopted son, Adam and Teela were actually married and ruling Eternia together.
• Hey Arnold!: Arnold's two longest crushes have been Ruth McDougal, who has auburn hair, and Lila Sawyer, who had red hair until halfway through Season 4, when it became closer to auburn-brown. Averted as Word of God has said that Arnold will eventually end up with Helga, a blonde.
• Huntik: Secrets & Seekers:
  • On this animated show, there are two female heroines: the sultry, raven-haired Asian beauty, Zhalia, and the fiery redhead British hottie, Sophie. Guess which one is the main character's love interest?
  • The main character's childhood crush, Scarlet, is also redheaded. Meanwhile, Sophie spends the first half of the series much more interested in the main character's mentor, Dante Vale, who also has red hair.
• One portion of the Disney short Inner Workings involves Paul falling for a curvy redheaded sunglasses vendor. His brain however once again makes him go to work instead of talking to her. After Paul's brain learns that All Work is unhealthy, Paul begins unwinding. The ending shows that Paul and the woman ended up together and had two children.
• The Jem character with the most love interests is Kimber, who has pinkish red hair.
• In Justice League John Stewart, the Green Lantern, has a complicate relationship with Shayera, aka Hawkgirl.
• Kaeloo: When Stumpy goes on a website to look for a girlfriend, he almost messages a redhead girl on the site, but changes his mind when he finds out that her hair is dyed. ^note When he does get a girlfriend, she winds up being The Unseen, so the audience cannot tell if she is a redhead or not.
• A sort of inversion in Kim Possible, where the title hero is the redhead and her main Love Interest is her best friend/sidekick, the blonde Ron Stoppable.
• In The Legend of Korra the appropriately named Ginger is a beautiful red headed actress whose used as Damsel in Distress propaganda In-Universe by Varrick. Bolin plays her Love Interest Nuktuk and becomes attracted to out of character, Ginger doesn’t return his affection at first but warms up to Bolin and even gives him a Big Damn Kiss at one point.
• In the Legion of Super-Heroes (2006), Alexis is a one time love-interest of Superman's, although somewhat ruined by her Face–Heel Turn. Not to mention the Princess of the Amazons in an issue of the spinoff comic. Plus, if people with orange hair count, Triplicate Girl is this to Bouncing Boy, or so it's implied.
• Parodied in Megas XLR. The gang is picked up by a Captain Harlock Expy (but is really more of a Jerkass than a hero) who immediately starts hitting on Kiva. The pirate crew dread their captain flirting with her, lamenting his fondness for redheads, but the audience doesn't realize how serious the captain's obsession is until Kiva finds a portrait gallery filled with paintings of all his old, strictly redheaded girlfriends... and one redheaded dude. Played straight when, in the Bad Future, Jamie and Kiva get together.
• This is subverted in the Mickey Mouse (2013) short "Goofy's First Love". It at first appears that Goofy is in love with a red-haired waitress, but the end of the short reveals that he is actually in love with the sandwich the waitress is carrying.
• Ninjago: In the fourth season, Kai falls for the red-haired Skylor.
• In the Peanuts animated specials, Charlie Brown's crush is a little redheaded girl.
• Red Hot Riding Hood may be the Trope Codifier in the animation world.
• Morty of Rick and Morty has the hots for Jessica, a redhead in his math class. Rick himself also has a thing for redheads, getting his old Hive Mind fling to organize an orgy with all the hottest redheads it can control. It reached near-memetic proportions in Season 3, where all 3 women that Morty chases after detoxifying are redheads. In addition, "Morty Mind Blowers" showed that Morty once used one of Rick's devices to attract women, all are redheads.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM): Princess Sally Acorn has red hair and serves as Sonic's love interest.
• The Spectacular Spider-Man is a subversion/aversion, as while Mary Jane does appear and is originally built up as if she's going to be his love interest...She makes it clear the next time they see each other that they're just friends and then refuses to date anyone seriously, until Mark Allen/Molten Man shows up anyway. Word of God has stated that they try to draw mostly from the roots of the franchise and MJ would have became Peter's main love interest again if the series hadn't been canceled, so MJ was relegated to her original role as a Foil for Gwen, the primary Love Interest.
• Firestar of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends was at times the crush of both Spidey and Iceman. Considering that Firestar (who was originally created exclusively for the show) is actually based off of Mary Jane Watson, to the point where she is practically a clone of the original John Romita design but with superpowers...
• Starchaser: The Legend of Orin. Orin and the red-headed governor's daughter, Aviana, end up together at the end of the film.
• Superjail!:
  • The Warden exhibits unrequited love for red-haired Alice (a male-to-female transsexual).
  • Jared's love interest is basically a female, redheaded version of himself.
• Robin in Teen Titans (2003) to the red-haired Starfire. Despite being a Chick Magnet, his Ship Tease is only with Starfire and becomes more than teasing in The Movie.
• April O'Neil, yellow-jumpsuited friend of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, was an object of the boys' affection in both the cartoon and the movies and for Casey Jones. Especially in the 2003 series. There, she was far more of a redhead than she's ever been in any other media series up until then.
• The Toxic Crusaders episode "Tree Trouble" had Major Disaster fall for a red-haired tree surgeon.
• Transformers: Prime. Jack Darby's main crush is the redheaded Sierra, a schoolmate of his and captain of the cheerleading squad.
• Undergrads: Kimmy, object of Nitz's affections, is a redhead.
• The Venture Bros.:
  • Molotov Cocktease is a semi-heroically sociopathic Commie redhead.
  • In one episode, Phantom Limb freezes a courtroom and gives Dr. Orpheus a hypnotic suggestion to testify against the Monarch, then he'll get an archvillain like he always wanted. When the room unfreezes, Dr. Orpheus is wistfully muttering "I hope they'll get me a girl villain. A redhead..."
• In Winx Club, Sky currently dates the main heroine Bloom, who is a redhead.
• Redhead Kid Flash/Wally in Young Justice (2010) has a crush on the equally redheaded Miss Martian. Who is interested in Superboy. Aqualad has a crush on his friend Tula, but she is already in a relationship with his other friend, Garth. And then there's Dick Grayson/Robin/Nightwing, who is Friends with Benefits with his Childhood Friend Barbara Gordon/Batgirl.

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